A&M, fully expecting to make the NCAA tournament less than two weeks ago, likely will miss out for a fourth consecutive season under fourth-year coach Billy Kennedy. The Aggies had made the NCAA tournament six straight years under two staffs prior to his arrival.

“We didn’t handle the magnitude of the game,” Kennedy said. “We had a hard time handling the pressure when things went bad for us.”

Exactly why is an aggravating mystery to Aggie fans, who witnessed a big-league collapse likely leading A&M (20-11) to a berth in the oft-ignored National Invitation Tournament, in failing to be one of the 68 programs participating in March Madness.

“We were on the verge of cracking the NCAA tournament,” Caruso said. “It’s disappointing — we let that slip out of our hands.”

That wasn’t the only thing slipping out of A&M’s hands on Thursday. The Aggies committed 19 turnovers, including eight by Caruso in the second half (and 10 overall). A&M led 33-23 at halftime, but with a little more seven minutes remaining in the contest, Auburn led 53-43 — a 20-point swing in the span of about 13 minutes.

The Tigers (14-19) entered the conference tournament 4-14 in league play, but pulled off slight upsets of Mississippi State and A&M for the right to face No. 4 seed LSU on Friday. Despite A&M resting on Wednesday while Auburn battled down to the finish with MSU, the Tigers appeared to own the fresher legs on Thursday when it counted, in routing the Aggies 43-26 in the second half.

On Feb. 28, the Aggies defeated Auburn 80-55 in College Station to snag at least 20 victories for the first time since 2011, also the last time they played in the NCAA tournament. The Aggies then fell at Florida (66-62) and at home to Alabama (61-60), the latter without star guard Danuel House, who had sprained his foot late in the loss to the Gators.

House also missed A&M’s brief appearance in the SEC tournament — and it was evident the Aggies wholly depended on the transfer from the University of Houston.

“If House was here (playing), we might have won the last two games and might have been in the NCAA tournament, and we might not have had to worry about it,” Caruso said. “But that’s how those things happen, and that’s how things were.”